Pseudo-Theages is the anonymous Hellenistic compositor of an ethical treatise transmitted pseudepigraphically under the name of Theages. The historical Theages was a follower of Socrates; he is the attribution mask, not the dated author of this artificial-Doric work.
The compositor is dated fl. c. 150 BCE, within a range of 200–100 BCE. The work presupposes settled Platonic and Aristotelian ethical frameworks, while Centrone's linguistic and doctrinal argument places this group no later than the early first century BCE. The midpoint is approximate rather than an exact dating claim.
The treatise combines the tripartite soul with γνῶσις, δύναμις, and προαίρεσις as the three origins of virtue. This places it in the Hellenistic ethical milieu, although the direction of influence between it and Stoicism remains unsettled. It defines δύναμις as ἰσχύς τις φύσιος, a natural strength that enables firmness and persistence, not as a latent capacity awaiting activation.
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